From the article:
At least bad programmers can be educated
I don’t think that’s true. I would hire a smart math or music major who had never programmed in his life before I’d hire a mediocre experienced programmer. I’d buy the smart math or music major a book on algorithms and a book on whatever programming language the company was using and I bet he’d be outperforming the experienced programmer in six months.

I find it difficult to believe, but the reports keep pouring in via Twitter and email: many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can't program. At all. Consider this recent email from Mike Lin: The article Why Can't Programmers... Program? changed the way I did interviews. I ...